电影


英 國《觀察家報:音樂月刊》(The Observer Music Monthly)於今年三月中,有一篇關於全球50大電影原聲的報告文章,並分別找來業界不同人士作點評,這多少給我們看到西方業界對電影原聲的喜好與一 些觀點,無論在當時或爾後,這些原聲對觀眾及至對業界都產生過一定的影響力。


1 《綠野仙踪》(The Wizard of Oz, 1939)
音樂:Herbert Stothart;作曲:Harold Arlen/ Ey Harburg

看過電影的,誰都忘不了桃樂絲這位清純可人的美少女,一曲〈Over the Rainbow〉,甜美溫柔得可以,此曲不單成了美國的世紀之歌的第一位(No 1 in the recording Industry Association of American’s ‘Songs of Century’),也為飾演桃樂絲的Judy Garland平地一聲雷,然後,這首歌既是她的生命轉捩點,也成了她後來人生的詛咒,看過Garland傳奇的,無不為此嘆息。

然 而,能夠被選為50大首位,可以看到夢工場音樂的終極使命──製造夢。《綠野仙踪》屬於類型歌舞片中的表表者之一,當中歌曲較當地孩童成長的搖籃曲更窩 心,也是成人世界的美好回憶,能夠跨代作出影響。電影中其他歌曲諸如〈Follow The Yellow Brick Road〉、〈Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead〉、〈We ‘re Off To See The Wizard〉等,都是令人喜悅再三的歌聲。

2《觸目驚心》(Psycho, 1959)
音樂:Bernard Herrmann

排行第二位當然殊不簡單,而且還是如此風格之作,是的,主流從來不是Herrmann那杯茶。從《大國民》(Citizen Kane)到《的士司機》(Taxi Driver)這部臨終之作,Herrmann為大家示範了何謂主流以外的偏鋒、另類,如何利用主題(motif)製造反諷效果,刺激觀眾聽覺,也成就了 電影配樂界首批殿堂級巨人。

毫無疑問,Herrmann也為後世配樂家示範了何謂「獨立」與「專業」。當希治閣 (Hitchcock)一聲令下,指明不要在《觸目驚心》裡的經典浴室殺人場景配置音樂,Herrmann另有想法,他不理會希氏之言,做他想做與應做 的,最後希氏沒哼一句把音樂如Herrmann所言配置,成就了電影音樂史一個最經典的場景。

Herrmann從不賣帳,也可能是史上最自視不凡的配樂家之一,他的其中一句名言是:「《觸目驚心》裡三份一的電影效果理應歸功音樂!」

3《星球大戰》(Star Wars, 1977)
音樂:John Williams

像John Williams這個大剌剌的名字出現名單之上根本不足為奇,我只是猜想獎項會落在誰家?原以為那是他跟老拍檔史蒂芬史匹堡(Steven Spielberg)的結晶品《大白鯊》(Jaws),兩個音符可以具像鯊魚的殺傷力,不知替史匹堡減省多少視覺效果考慮。卻原來,結果落在佐治.盧卡斯 (George Lucas)的《星球大戰》。文中請來同為配樂界的Anne Dudley評點,她強調是Williams的整體功績,卻少有在此片著墨。

個人猜想嘛,也難怪,《星戰》系列電影長拍長有(電影史 上甚少這種例子!!),盧卡斯跟Williams的合作無間,很難不多得這位音樂家的功勞。不過,據知此電影的主題旋律取經自古典音樂家Gustav Holst的1918的著名作品《行星組曲》(The Planets),此樂章為John Willians的「星戰音樂」及後世科幻電影確立了別具一格的科幻風格。也許,其實這個獎Gustav Holst也應記一功。

4《大路之歌》(Pather Panchali, 1955)
音樂:Ravi Shankar

相對其他得獎的電影原聲,薩耶吉特.雷伊 (Satyajit Ray)的《大路之歌》能夠獲選第四位,可見評審團並未因這部電影的非主流而備受忽略,絕對是可喜之事(相信同樣的選舉在美國會有不一樣的名單)。

全片音樂充滿了印度的獨有古典樂風,Ravi Shankar為電影注入了印度的古樂器西塔琴(Sitar)的漂亮演奏,有別於荷里活那種濃郁而商業的音樂質感,自然的琴音正好呼應著雷伊在電影裡那份 不著痕跡的詩情感性,充分表現細節與寧靜的力量。難怪就連多才多藝的英藉印裔音樂人兼配樂師Nitin Sawhney,也直言此片對他為同以印度人為題材的電影作品Namesake(2006)有著重要的影響。

5《發條橙》(Clockwork Orange, 1971)
音樂:Wendy Carlos

寇比力克(Stanley Kubrick)為電影《發條橙》找來一眾古典音樂配置於連串暴力色情畫面固然前衛震撼,更令人驚訝是,在把樂曲放置畫面前,他先找來Wendy Carlos這位電子音樂聖手為神聖樂曲改頭換面,無論是貝多芬或亨利普賽爾等大師的大作都變得扭曲、冷漠、廉價而叫人焦慮不安,是年輕人反叛的革命音 樂,是對高等文化(high culture)一種充滿挑釁性的反諷。
寇氏這種充滿爭議性的音樂表達手段,直接影響70年至80年代的流行音樂樂壇,成為一種反叛宣言,向所謂權威、絕對與神聖宣戰。

6《荒野大鏢客》(A Fistful Dollars, 1964)
音樂:Ennio Morricone

剛獲頒奧斯卡終身成就獎的Ennio Morricone,其一生輝煌成績單從他的另一外號──「電影配樂界的莫札特」可略知一二,這次排名第六,可能令人有點失望,不過,就連向來以傲氣見稱 的Michael Nyman也表示對Morricone的才華心誠信服,算是一種安慰:「沒有Morricone的音樂,里昂(Leone)的電影就多少變得乾澀。 Morricone是意大利人,他所做的音樂早已超出了美國電影沿用的配樂風格,音樂在電影的出現可以影響我們對電影的接收,Morricone的音樂絕 對是帶領你進入電影。」是的,更何況多年來Morricone曾為不同類型電影撰寫音樂,一樣頭頭是道,就連昆頓.塔倫天奴(Quentin Tarantino)也要在他兩部《殺死比爾》(Kill Bill)中向他的音樂致敬。

7《羅賓漢歷險記》(The Adventures of Robin Hood, 1938)
音樂:Erich Wolfgang Korngold

憑著這部電影,Erich Wolfgang Korngold於1939年獲得了他的奧斯卡最佳電影原聲獎項。荷里活音效師Nick James指出,當年Korngold把電影視為一部輕歌劇的處理,令人感覺愉悅。更重要是片中加入了中世紀定音鼓(medieval kettle drum)的配器,還有以華麗的華爾滋配置於電影中的一場森林盛宴,令觀眾耳目一新,也是成了電影獲得獎項的關鍵所在,至於影響力嘛,James又說,因 為這部電影,開創了電影常用的「追逐音樂」(chase music)先河。

8《亞歷山大.涅夫斯基》(Alexander Nevsky, 1938)
音樂:Sergei Prokofiev

蒙太奇電影理論大師愛森斯坦(Sergei Eisenstein)的影像加上前蘇聯古典音樂家Sergei Prokofiev的音樂,單就電影裡一場11分鐘純光影加音樂的「冰上大戰」(Battle on the ice),足叫人盡情感受兩者的精心傑作。

9《夏福特》(Shaft, 1971)
音樂:Issac Hayes

絕對是屬於某個時代的音樂印記。像《夏福特》這部電影原聲結合了影片中黑人偵探John Shaft的形象,令觀眾留下深刻回憶。音樂冷峻中令人興奮,容易喚起聽者注目,大大影響同期同類型電影之電影原聲創作。當今007系列電影配樂家 David Arnold亦自言深受其創作影響,他說:「音樂在當中不單是活生生的生命,而且是如斯自然,集世俗與性感一身。」

10《通往絞刑架的電梯》(Lift To The Scaffold, 1958)
音樂:Miles Davis

屬於路易.馬盧(Louis Malle)經典作之一,音樂自然要記一功。事實上,數年前德國導演雲.溫達斯(Wim Wenders)來香港作影後座談演說,有人問起他最鍾愛的電影原聲,他說的正是這部馬盧作品。通過Miles Davis,原來電影音樂可以是這樣的,他說。Miles Davis以音樂展示城市獨有的孤獨一面,憂傷而冷傲。

其他40部榜上有名作品

11《萬花嬉春》(Singing In The Rain, 1952;音樂:Arthur Freed、Nacio Herb Brown)

12《迷幻列車》(Trainspotting, 1996;音樂:Danny Boyle)

13《正午》(High Noon, 1952;音樂:Dimitri Tiomkin)

14《2002》(Blade Runner, 1982;音樂:Vangelis)

15《2001太空漫遊》(2001, 1968;音樂揀選:Stanley Kubrick)

16《美國風情畫》(American Graffiti, 1973;音樂揀選:George Lucas)

17《美麗有罪》(American Beauty, 1999;音樂:Thomas Newman)

18《雙峰:與火同行》(Twins Peak: Fire Walk With Me, 1992;音樂:Angelo Badalamenti)

19《德州.巴黎》(Paris, Texas, 1984;音樂:Ry Cooder )

20《女皇密使》(On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, 1969;音樂:John Barry)

21Dougal And The Blue Cat, 1972;敘事者:Eric Thompson

22《亂世佳人》(Gone With The Wind, 1939;音樂:Max Steiner)

23《教父》(The God Father, 1972;音樂:Nino Rota、Carmine Coppola)

24《西城故事》(West Side Story, 1957;音樂:Leonard Bernstein)

25 Slade In Flame, 1974;歌唱:Slade

26《第三者》(The Third Man, 1949;音樂:Anton Karas)

27《畢業生》(The Graduate, 1968;音樂:Simon & Garfunkel)

28《粉紅豹》(The Pink Panther,1963;音樂:Henry Mancini)

29《玩具總動員》(Toy Story, 1995;音樂:Randy Newman)

30《夜未央》(Round Midnight, 1986;音樂:Herbie Hancock)

31《幽靈狗:忍者之路》(Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, 1999;音樂The Rza)

32《黑手煞星》(Trouble Man, 1972;音樂:Marvin Gaye)

33《魔鬼怪嬰》(Rosemary’ s Bay, 1968;音樂:Krzysztof Komeda)

34《頭》(Head, 1968;音樂:The Monkees)

35《阿爾菲》(Alfie, 1966;音樂:Sonny Rollins)

36《意大利任務》(The Italian Job, 1969;音樂:Quincy Jones)

37《義薄雲天》(Once Upon A Time in American, 1984;音樂:Ennio Morricone)

38《飛越瘋人院》(One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, 1975;音樂:Jack Nitzsche)

39《北西北》(North by North West, 1959;音樂:Bernard Herrmann)

40《種族情深》(Crooklyn, 1994;音樂:Various)

41《激流四勇士》(Deliverance, 1972;音樂:Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel)

42《血光鬼影奪命刀》(Don’t Look Now, 1973;音樂:Pino Donaggio)

43《北非碟影》(Casablanca, 1942;音樂:Max Steiner、Hugo W Friedhofer)

44《碼頭風雲》(On the Waterfront, 1954;音樂:Leonard Bernstein、Stephen Sondheim)

45《落水狗》(Reservoir Dog, 1992;音樂:Various)

46《七俠蕩寇志》(The Magnificent Seven, 1960;音樂:Elmer Berstein)

47《愛在冰雪紛飛時》(Snow Falling On Cedars, 1999;音樂:James Newton Howard)

48《異教徒》(The Wicker Man, 1973;音樂:Paul Giovanni)

49《辣手神探奪命槍》(Dirty Harry, 1971;音樂:Lalo Schifrin)

50《鍾斯小姐內心的魔鬼》(The Devil In Miss Jones, 1973;音樂:Alden Shuman)

(本文原刊於《看電影》330期)

bicyclethief1.jpg

1. Chungking Express (1994)- Wong Kar Wai

2. The Man with a movie camera(1932)- Dziga Vertov

3. Being John Malkovich(1999)- Spike Jonze

4. Vertigo(1958)- Alfred Hitchcock

5. Before Sunset(2004)- Richard Linklater

6. Singing in the rain (1952)- Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly

7. Sunrise (1927)- FW Murnau

8. Leon (1994)- Luc Besson

9. Tonari no Totoro (1988)- Hayao Miyazaki

10. L.A. Confidential (1997) – Curtis Hanson

11. Almost Famous (2000)- Cameron Crowne

12. The Wizard of Oz(1939) -Victor Fleming

13. Mullholand Drive (2001) -David Lynch

14.The Legend of 1900(1998)-Giuseppe Tornatore

15. Bicycle Thief (1948)-   Vottorio De Sica

The world’s 40 best directors
The Hollywood blockbuster may be in crisis, but the art of the cinema is as healthy as ever. Our panel of critics picks out the film-makers who are leading the way

David Lynch 1. David Lynch
After all the discussion, no one could fault the conclusion that David Lynch is the most important film-maker of the current era. Providing a portal into the collective subconscious, the daydream nation conjured up in tales such as Blue Velvet, Lost Highway or Mulholland Drive is by turns frightening, exasperating, revelatory and wild. Nobody makes films like David Lynch. He is our spooky tour guide through a world of dancing dwarves, femme fatales and little blue boxes that may (or may not) contain all the answers. We wouldn’t want to live in the places he takes us. Somehow, we suspect, we do.
Substance 17
Look 18
Craft 18
Originality 19
Intelligence 17
Total 89
Wild at art: profile
More about Mulholland Drive
Martin Scorsese 2. Martin Scorsese
Scorsese’s influence is impossible to overstate. His red-blooded canon has spawned a generation of copycats while his muscular style has become a template. That said, opinion is divided over the man’s recent output. Some regard his monumental Gangs of New York as a classic to rank alongside Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. Others worry that the heavyweight champion of American movies is no longer quite punching his weight.
Substance 17
Look 18
Craft 18
Originality 17
Intelligence 18
Total 88
More about Gangs of New York
A terrible beauty: interview
Joel and Ethan Coen 3. Joel and Ethan Coen
Their latest film, Intolerable Cruelty, may have marked a new, “commercial” phase in their career, but no one could ever accuse the Coen brothers of selling out. The Coens’ special mix of arch, sculpted dialogue, film-history homage and scrupulously-framed cinematography has never failed them yet, and through their associations with Sam Raimi and Barry Sonnenfeld, have exerted a powerful, if unacknowledged, influence on mainstream event cinema. Until Fargo, they seemed content to mess about in their own particular corner of the film industry; that film’s stunning popular success suddenly catapulted them into the Hollywood big league.
Substance 14
Look 18
Craft 18
Originality 18
Intelligence 18
Total 86
Double vision: interview
More about: Intolerable Cruelty
Steven Soderbergh 4. Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderbergh is a one-off: an independent-minded film-maker who has forged a happy working relationship with Hollywood. This is thanks to a brilliant balancing act. Soderbergh soothes the studios with expert, intelligent crowd-pleasers like Erin Brockovich and Ocean’s Eleven then shifts gear for more esoteric, personal projects (Solaris, Full Frontal). His ongoing alliance with George Clooney, moreover, is the most reliable director-star double act since Scorsese found De Niro.
Substance 16
Look 17
Craft 18
Originality 16
Intelligence 18
Total 85
More about Solaris
Steven Soderbergh at the NFT
Terence Malick 5. Terrence Malick
The lofty ranking of Terrence Malick just goes to show that it’s quality, not quantity, that counts. Renowned as a ghostly, Garbo-style recluse, this fabled figure has made just three films over three decades. Even so, the wild beauty of his 1973 debut Badlands casts a formidable shadow, while his sprawling 1999 war epic The Thin Red Line at least proved that the master had lost none of his magic. Next up, apparently, is a biopic of Che Guevara. But don’t hold your breath.
Substance 16
Look 18
Craft 17
Originality 17
Intelligence 17
Total 85
More about The Thin Red Line
Abbas Kiarostami 6. Abbas Kiarostami
The highest ranking non-American, and one of the most respected film-makers working today – by his peers if not the general public. Operating mostly in rural Iran, Kiarostami has often concealed potentially life-threatening political commentary within films of simplicity and compassion. But he has complicated his medium, too, by mixing drama and documentary, and actors and non-actors, to dizzying effect. His recent in-car drama Ten provided a daring Tehran exposé as well as a radical new film-making technique – one that almost does away with the director entirely.
Substance 18
Look 15
Craft 16
Originality 17
Intelligence 18
Total 84
Jonathan Rosenbaum on Kiarostami’s short films
People watching: Interview

Errol Morris 7. Errol Morris
Morris is the joker in this top 10, in that his position is solely down to his documentaries. Put simply, Morris is the world’s best investigative film-maker. He possesses a forensic mind, a painter’s eye and a nose for the dark absurdities of American life. High points include The Thin Blue Line (which unearths the nightmarish truth behind a Dallas cop killing), Mr Death (a treatise on execution-device inventor and Holocaust denier Fred Leuchter Jr), and the forthcoming Fog of War, his compelling autopsy on the war in Vietnam.
Substance 17
Look 16
Craft 17
Originality 17
Intelligence 17
Total 84
More about Fog of War
Hayao Miyazaki 8. Hayao Miyazaki
It’s about time the rest of the world came to appreciate the genius of Japanese animator Miyazaki, whose films have been breaking box-office records in Japan for years. He’s now in his 60s, but as this year’s Spirited Away proved, the work just keeps getting better. His films create the world anew, literally. Each is set in an intricate, self-contained fantasy world that’s been built from scratch and drawn with devotion. Miyazaki’s stories are frequently considered children’s fare but they are deeper than they look – like the best fairy tales, they conceal dark, very adult themes beneath their surfaces.
Substance 15
Look 18
Craft 17
Originality 18
Intelligence 16
Total 84
Nick Park pays tribute to Hayao Miyazaki
More about Spirited Away
David Cronenberg 9. David Cronenberg
Few directors have ploughed such distinctive furrows as Cronenberg. And now in his fourth decade of film-making, he is still at the cutting edge. Crash set the entire film world agog with its bizarre sexual constructs; eXistenZ examined the implications of the virtual world more thoughtfully than most; and Spider superbly summoned up a bleak, decaying Britishness (largely forgotten by our own film-makers). His next film, with Nicolas Cage playing a plastic-surgery fetishist, is already inducing shudders.
Substance 16
Look 17
Craft 16
Originality 18
Intelligence 16
Total 83
Menace to society: interview
Terence Davies 10. Terence Davies
Our highest-placed British film-maker is here because of his uncompromising and unique cinematic vision; but, with painful irony, it’s also made him the highest-profile victim of Britain’s commercial film industry revival. Emerging from the state-sponsored art-film sector in the mid-80s, Davies completed a trilogy of short films and two features – Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Long Day Closes. But, in a more cut-throat environment, the sensitive Davies has suffered, making only two films in a decade – one of them the international hit The House of Mirth. So it seems a shame – and somehow scandalous – that his current project, an adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s Sunset Song, should be facing major funding obstacles.
Substance 17
Look 17
Craft 16
Originality 16
Intelligence 17
Total 83
More about The House of Mirth
Lukas Moodysson 11. Lukas Moodysson
You would assume that the surest way to hobble a young Swedish film-maker is to label him “the new Bergman”. Fortunately, Lukas Moodysson seems immune to such pressure. His 2001 hit Together – about hippies living communally in 1970s Stockholm – was warm, witty and altogether disarming. By contrast, his follow-up, Lilya 4-Ever (about a Russian teen dragooned into prostitution), was a social-realist vision of hell. Heartfelt and uncompromising, Moodysson treads his own path.
Substance 17
Look 16
Craft 17
Originality 17
Intelligence 16
Total 83
Lukas Moodysson at the NFT
More about Together
Lynne Ramsay 12. Lynne Ramsay
Ramsay, the second highest-placed Brit – and the highest woman of any nationality – has trodden a distinctive path through the lottery-fuelled sludge of modern British cinema. Her first film, Ratcatcher, set during the binmen strikes of 70s Glasgow, was the anti-Billy Elliot; her second, adapted from Alan Warner’s novel More about Morvern Callar, confirmed her promise. Morvern is an authentic modern classic, with an actress, Samantha Morton, whose blank-faced performance is a perfect complement to Ramsay’s studied camerawork.
Lynne Ramsay at the NFT
More about Morvern Callar
Bela Tarr 13. Bela Tarr
In just a few years, the Hungarian director has emerged from obscurity to be revered as the Tarkovsky of his generation, with his dark and mysterious monochrome parables, shot with uncompromisingly long, slow single camera takes. His recent Werckmeister Harmonies was a dreamlike film: compelling and sublime. From 1994, Satantango has cult status on the festival circuit, not least for its awe-inspiring length: seven hours. He is now developing a movie at least partly set in London.
Substance 16
Look 16
Craft 16
Originality 18
Intelligence 16
Total 82
More about The Werckmeister Harmonies
Wong Kar-Wei 14. Wong Kar-wai
Hong Kong has become synonymous with action cinema, but Wong Kar-Wai is one of few exceptions. His trademark portraits of quirky urban longing have influenced Asian film as a whole, but the delectably sensuous In the Mood for Love proved that Wong is still improving (and that he has one of the best cinematographers in the business in Christopher Doyle). Next up he’s making a sci-fi movie – should be interesting.
Substance 14
Look 18
Craft 17
Originality 17
Intelligence 16
Total 82
Mood music: interview
Pedro Almodovar 15. Pedro Almodovar
Post-Franco Spain needed Almodovar like a desert needs rain. His early films were gaudy, bawdy and loud; drunken celebrations of the country’s new-found social and sexual freedoms. But Almodovar is much more than some posturing agent provocateur. He spins soulful, spellbinding stories and creates characters that ring with life. All About My Mother and Talk to Her were exotic masterpieces that confirmed their creator as the most important Spanish director since Luis Buñuel.
Substance 15
Look 16
Craft 16
Originality 18
Intelligence 16
Total 81
Pedro Almodovar at the NFT
Todd Haynes 16. Todd Haynes
In retrospect, it seems such a simple idea – take your favourite director (in Haynes’ case, Douglas Sirk) and faithfully imitate their style and meaning, subtly changing things enough to throw a whole new meaning on an entire historical epoch and film genre. In 1996 Haynes had made an earlier masterpiece, Safe; few directors could have topped that, but Far From Heaven managed it.
Substance 16
Look 16
Craft 16
Originality 16
Intelligence 17
Total 81
Todd Haynes at the NFT
Quentin Tarantino 17. Quentin Tarantino
The jury may still be undecided on the virtues of Kill Bill, but no one can deny the massive impact the former video-store clerk has had on cinema across the world. The chewy, minutiae-obsessed dialogue and abundant bloodletting of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction catapulted him to era-defining stature and influence beyond the wildest dreams of any director; had this poll been taken in 1995, he would have been top three, no question. But Tarantino has since been the victim of his own success: he took three years to make his third film, Jackie Brown, and another six to make his fourth. Perhaps inevitably, neither of them made the splash of his first two, but whatever else, Tarantino can still make the simple act of watching a film seem oh-so-exciting.
Substance 14
Look 17
Craft 18
Originality 18
Intelligence 14
Total 81
Saint Quentin: interview
More about Kill Bill: Volume 1
Tsai Ming-Liang 18. Tsai Ming-Liang
One of the least well-known names on the list, but a director who has steadily refined his own gentle, bittersweet style. Using his native Taipei as a backdrop, Tsai distills the complexity and alienation of city life into films that are austere, unhurried and emotional, but also comical. His pre-apocalyptic The Hole included 1950s musical numbers, for example, while What Time Is It There? paid homage to Harold Lloyd in a movie about death and loneliness. In his latest, Goodbye Dragon Inn, he has almost done away with dialogue altogether.
Substance 15
Look 16
Craft 16
Originality 16
Intelligence 17
Total 80
More about What Time Is It There?
Aki Kaurismaki 19. Aki Kaurismaki
Cinema needs the occasional breath of fresh air, and you can always rely on Kaurismaki to provide it. Coming from Finland, he had a head start, but where other quirky directors last a film or two, Kaurismaki seems to have a bottomless pool of eccentric ideas to draw from. His films are an acquired taste, but they never pander to good taste. For a supposed director of art films, he’s more interested in the world out on the street, or in the gutter. And his most recent, The Man Without a Past, saw him re-emerge into the global spotlight after some years at its fringe.
Substance 15
Look 15
Craft 16
Originality 18
Intelligence 16
Total 80
‘I am a lousy film-maker’: interview
Michael Winterbottom 20. Michael Winterbottom
Winterbottom’s career presents a study in motion. His films spirit us from Hardy’s Wessex (Jude) to war-torn Bosnia (Welcome to Sarajevo), and from post-punk Manchester (24 Hour Party People) to the asylum-seekers’ “silk road” out of Pakistan (In This World). As well as being technically brilliant and a seeming workaholic, Winterbottom is arguably the most politically astute director in the business, with an unerring eye for the stories that matter. British cinema would be lost without him.
Substance 16
Look 15
Craft 17
Originality 16
Intelligence 16
Total 80
More about In This World
Michael Winterbottom on In This World
Paul Thomas Anderson 21. Paul Thomas Anderson
There is something wonderfully fearless about 33-year-old Paul Thomas Anderson. His two best pictures (Boogie Nights and Magnolia) are works of gob-smacking ambition in one so young – lush, multi-layered ensemble pieces that spotlight the damaged souls of his native San Fernando Valley. But let’s not forget the recent Punch-Drunk Love, starring Adam Sandler and Emily Watson. Smaller in scale but no less turbulent, this undervalued effort is like a nail bomb in the guise of a romantic comedy.
Substance 15
Look 16
Craft 16
Originality 17
Intelligence 15
Total 79
‘I can be a real arrogant brat’: interview
Michael Haneke 22. Michael Haneke
No one, perhaps not even Gaspar Noé, delivers more hardcore horror than the German-born Austrian Haneke – even when his shocks are happening off camera, which they mostly do. After a long career in TV, Haneke graduated to the big screen in the early 90s and audiences quickly came to know they were in for a profoundly uncomfortable experience.The Piano Teacher, with Isabelle Huppert, was a disquieting study of a musician driven to agonies of despair and self-loathing. More recently, Time of the Wolf was an almost unwatchably horrible vision of post-apocalyptic Europe.
Substance 16
Look 13
Craft 16
Originality 17
Intelligence 17
Total 79
No pain, no gain: interview
More about The Piano Teacher
Walter Salles 23. Walter Salles
The godfather and trailblazer of the buena onda – the “good wave” of contemporary Latin American cinema, Salles’s directorial reputation rests largely on two recent films, Central Station and Behind the Sun, which virtually on their own put Brazilian cinema on the map. Salles has just finished another road movie, The Motorcycle Diaries, based on Che Guevara’s book, for Britain’s FilmFour, and is finally going Hollywood with a remake of Hideo “Ring” Nakata’s Dark Water. But Salles is equally notable as a facilitator for other Brazilian projects – most importantly the sensational City of God, which he co-produced.
Substance 16
Look 16
Craft 16
Originality 15
Intelligence 16
Total 79
Walter Salles on making City of God
Alexander Payne 24. Alexander Payne
Payne came to prominence in 1999 with his stunning high school satire Election, the Animal Farm of American sexual politics in the Clinton era. From here, Payne went on to direct About Schmidt, which gave Jack Nicholson the best role of his late career. With these two movies, Payne has established an auteur distinctiveness: amplifying the disappointment and regret lurking within the peppy, can-do civic culture of middle America, while acknowledging the sweetness and innocence that is still there.
Substance 16
Look 16
Craft 16
Originality 15
Intelligence 16
Total 79
More about About Schmidt
Spike Jonze 25. Spike Jonze
Born into millionaire stock (and heir to the Spiegel mail-order catalogue fortune), Spike Jonze has installed himself as the genius jester in the court of King Hollywood. His 1999 debut, Being John Malkovich, was a delirious satire on celebrity culture, while Adaptation led the viewer on a slaloming joyride along the border between truth and fiction. Inevitably, though, one cannot celebrate Jonze without also crediting his scriptwriter – the ingenious Charlie Kaufman.
Substance 16
Look 14
Craft 16
Originality 17
Intelligence 16
Total 79
The weird world of Spike Jonze
More about Adaptation
Alexander Sokurov 26. Aleksandr Sokurov
The veteran Russian director is inexhaustibly prolific, making both features and documentaries, with 31 credits to his name over a 23-year career. His movies are powerful, poetic, often severe, and at their most accessible when they meditate on the nature of Russia. Sokurov had his biggest recent success with Russian Ark: a staggeringly ambitious single-take 90-minute journey through the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. His latest movie, Father And Son, is an enigmatic and often baffling study of a father-son relationship between two soldiers. His work gets a lively, mixed reaction in the west, but Sokurov’s admirers revere the haunting, occasionally austere power of his films.
Substance 16
Look 15
Craft 16
Originality 16
Intelligence 16
Total 79
More about Russian Ark
Ang Lee 27. Ang Lee
He may have taken a bit of a stumble with The Hulk, his elevation to blockbusterdom, but the Taiwanese-born Lee clocked up plenty of brownie points over the preceding decade for his dazzling versatility, if nothing else. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (a record-breaker for a subtitled film), The Ice Storm, The Wedding Banquet and Sense and Sensibility are all testament to a career of wonderfully fertile cinematic cross-pollination. Lee’s proficiency at swapping genres, but retaining a purposeful humaneness, is his hallmark.
Substance 16
Look 16
Craft 17
Originality 14
Intelligence 16
Total 79
The middle man: more about Ang Lee
Michael Moore 28. Michael Moore
You could say it’s Moore’s blend of humour, righteousness and persistence that has made his documentaries so successful, but his political commitment would be nothing without the film-making skills to back it up. Bowling for Columbine has been one of the most influential films of recent years, affecting the public in a way that most directors on this list will never know, but it would never have become such a cause had it not been so rigorously researched, painstakingly constructed and broadly entertaining.
Substance 17
Look 13
Craft 15
Originality 18
Intelligence 16
Total 79
Guerrilla in the Ritz: interview
More about Bowling For Columbine
Wes Anderson 29. Wes Anderson
No less an authority than Martin Scorsese recently tipped Anderson as the brightest hope for American cinema. Scripted in tandem with his actor buddy Owen Wilson, Anderson’s work is literate, quirky and unexpectedly moving. His breakthrough picture, Rushmore, amounted to a poignant salute to high-school losers everywhere. More recently, the vibrant, Salinger-esque The Royal Tenenbaums charted the decline and fall of a precocious New York family.
Substance 13
Look 16
Craft 16
Originality 17
Intelligence 16
Total 78
More about The Royal Tenenbaums
Takeshi Kitano 30. Takeshi Kitano
Few directors have ever made themselves look as cool as Kitano has. His shark-eyed gangster persona became a fixture of Japanese action thrillers in the 1990s, but behind the camera his controlled blend of visual slapstick and sudden violence has become a distinctive style. Recent efforts have seen him trying to diversify. Dolls was a subdued art film, but next year’s Zatoichi is a sword-swishing crowd pleaser.
Substance 15
Look 16
Craft 16
Originality 16
Intelligence 15
Total 78
‘You can’t tell what I’m going to do next’: interview
Richard Linklater 31. Richard Linklater
Linklater is the grunge philosopher of independent cinema. Hailing from Austin, Texas, he casually defined an era with 1991’s loose-knit, haphazard Slacker. The uproarious Dazed and Confused and the seductive Before Sunrise extolled the joys of footloose youth, while his animated Waking Life spun a woozy, bong-smoking rumination on dreams and reality. Incredibly, Linklater recently graduated to the big time when his School of Rock hit number one at the US box office.
Substance 15
Look 15
Craft 15
Originality 17
Intelligence 16
Total 78
More about Waking Life
Gaspar Noe 32. Gaspar Noé
Not bad for someone who’s only made two features, but Noé has made as much impact as you can with them. There’s nothing pretty about either his carnal debut Seul Contre Tous, or last year’s backwards-told rape-revenge drama Irréversible – both have challenged boundaries of decency and induced reactions as extreme as nausea and vomiting. In a supposedly unshockable age, that’s some kind of cinematic achievement.
Substance 15
Look 16
Craft 16
Originality 16
Intelligence 14
Total 77
More about Irreversible
Pavel Pawlikowski 33. Pavel Pawlikowski
With only one substantial feature under his belt, Polish-born, British-based director Pawlikowski has arguably the slenderest claim of all to be on this list. But Last Resort, with its mix of heartfelt social insight (the then-radical subject of asylum seekers) and improvisatory, documentary-style film-making, has exerted an influence of gigantic proportions on a whole generation of British cinema. Where would In This World and Dirty Pretty Things, to name but two, be without it?
Substance 16
Look 15
Craft 16
Originality 14
Intelligence 16
Total 77
More about Last Resort
David O Russell 34. David O Russell
Russell’s natural habitat is the dysfunctional American family. He dished up a deadpan Oedipal comedy with 1994’s Spanking the Monkey and then dispatched Ben Stiller cross-country in the freewheeling adoption caper Flirting With Disaster. Yet this tart, original talent adapts well to other terrain. On the one hand his big-budget Three Kings was an expert, high-concept war thriller. On the other, it can be read as a savage assault on bungled US policy during the first Gulf War.
Substance 15
Look 15
Craft 15
Originality 15
Intelligence 16
Total 76
More about Three Kings
The Wachowski brothers 35. Larry and Andy Wachowski
Now that their Matrix trilogy is finally wrapped up, it’s a good time to draw breath and appreciate the scale of the Wachowskis’ achievement. Merging the techno-porn of the contemporary action movie with the artful ballet of the Hong Kong martial arts film, the sci-fi paranoia of Philip K Dick with the visual exuberance of Japanese anime, the Matrix phenomenon utterly redefined the nature of the blockbuster movie serial, as well as relegating such mid-90s action luminaries as John Woo and Roland Emmerich to the margins. Like, awesome.
Substance 13
Look 17
Craft 17
Originality 16
Intelligence 13
Total 76
More about The Matrix
More about Matrix Revolutions
Samira Makhmalbaf 36. Samira Makhmalbaf
You could say Ms Makhmalbaf had it easy, being the daughter or one of Iran’s greatest film-makers, but she’s hardly taken any easy options. Her films get bolder and more confrontational every time – Blackboards took her into the Kurdish lands on the Iranian border; her latest, At Five in the Afternoon, was shot in the chaos of post-Taliban Afghanistan – but for all their political currency, there’s still evidence of an artistic sensibility. And she’s only 23 years old.
Substance 16
Look 15
Craft 16
Originality 14
Intelligence 15
Total 76
A woman’s place: interview
Lars von Trier 37. Lars von Trier
To his fans he’s the impish genius who redefined cinema with his Dogme doctrine. To his critics he’s Jeremy Beadle with a degree in anthropology. Either way, there’s no denying the impact of this phobic, Prozac-popping Dane. His most successful pictures (Breaking the Waves, The Idiots, the upcoming Dogville) are hazardous human dramas in which cruelty and compassion come equally blended. Happily there seems little danger of von Trier selling out and heading to Hollywood. He hates America and nurses a crippling fear of flying.
Substance 14
Look 15
Craft 16
Originality 17
Intelligence 14
Total 76
No Dane, no gain: interview
More about The Five Obstructions
Takashi Miike 38. Takashi Miike
If Miike had channelled his energies into making one film every year, rather than his customary six or seven, he could be a lot further up the list. Not that you’d want him to change. Miike’s casual technical brilliance and total disregard for taste are what makes his best films such a joy. Sure, there are plenty of misfires and generic gangster pictures to his credit, too, but there’s plenty of everything when it comes to Miike, surely that can’t be bad?
Substance 14
Look 16
Craft 16
Originality 15
Intelligence 14
Total 75
Interview: ‘Blood isn’t that scary’
David Fincher 39. David Fincher
Heading the list of the pop-promo-and-TV-commercial wonderkids of the early 90s, Fincher successfully brought that world’s visual inventiveness into the feature film world. In Alien 3, Seven, and Fight Club, he forged a string of visceral, unforgettable images; but his subsequent career has been dogged by aborted projects. Fincher’s most recent film, the unremarkable Panic Room, saw him in a holding pattern – it’s certainly cost him a few points.
Substance 12
Look 16
Craft 16
Originality 14
Intelligence 16
Total 74
Interview: ‘Directing is masochism’
Gus Van Sant 40. Gus Van Sant
A casual observer would be forgiven for thinking that there are two Gus Van Sants at work within American cinema. The first makes gloopy studio fodder like Good Will Hunting and the odious Finding Forrester. The second is the visionary auteur of Drugstore Cowboy, Gerry, My Own Private Idaho and the Palme d’Or-winning Elephant (an elegant, ultimately devastating take on the Columbine tragedy). For the record, it is the second Gus Van Sant who gets the votes here.
Substance 14
Look 14
Craft 15
Originality 14
Intelligence 16
Total 73

再一次,我最喜欢的电影之一,以下十电影最后几幕的对白,我觉得也是电影的高潮,让我之触动久久不能散去,电影的每一句对白都是巧思,发人深省,说的每一句话听了都有一股莫名的哀愁。
男女主角在分开9年后在巴黎巧遇,彼此分享对爱情,哲学,宗教及世界的看法,虽然喋喋不休,但我觉得这才是真正的爱情片

編導Richard Linklater也是School of Rock的导演。1.jpg

I still like you, I still enjoy being around you!

And I feel the same.

I’m… I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened.

I just…

- I had to let it all out. I… – Don’t worry about it.

I’m so miserable in my love life, in my relationship, I always act as…

Like…

you know, I’m detached, but I’m…

I’m dying inside.

I’m dying because I’m so numb,

I don’t feel pain, or excitement…

I’m not even bitter, I’m just…

You think you’re the one dying inside.

My life,

is twenty-for-seven…

MAD.

- I’m sorry… – No, no, no…

I mean, the only happiness I get is when I’m out with my son.

I’ve been to marriage counseling,

I’ve done things I never thought I would have to do,

I lit candles, bought self Sunset-help books, lingerie…

Did the candles help?

Hell, no!

All right, I’m in love with the way she needs to be loved, and…

I don’t even see a future for us.

But then I look at… at my little boy,

sitting at the table across from me,

and I think I would have suffered any torture

to be with him for all the minutes of his life.

You know, I don’t wanna miss out on one.

But then, then… there’s no joy,

or laughter, in my home.

You know, and I don’t want him growing up in that!

Oh, no laughter?

That’s terrible, my parents have been together for 35 years

and even when they have a bad fight, they end up laughing like crazy…

I just… I don’t wanna be one of those people who are…

getting divorced at 52, and falling down into tears,

admitting that they never really loved their spouse,

and they feel that their life has been…

sucked up into a vacuum cleaner!

You know, I want a great life.

I want her to have a great life.

She deserves that!

All right. But we’re just living in a pretense

of a marriage responsibility, and all this…

just…

ideas of how people are suppose to live.

Then I…

I have this dreams…

What dreams?

I have this dreams,

you know, that…

I’m standing on a platform,

and…

you keep going by on a train,

and…

you go by, and you go by, and you go by,

and I wake up with the fucking sweats, you know?

And then I have this other dream,

oh… where you’re…

pregnant, in bed, beside me, naked, and I want so badly to touch you,

but you tell me not to,

and then you look away.

And…

and I… I…

I touch you anyway,

right on your ankle, and your skin is so soft,

and I wake up in sobs, all right?

And my wife is sitting there, looking at me,

and I feel like I’m a million miles from her and I know that there’s something…

… wrong!

You know, that I ca…

that I can’t keep living like this, that there’s gotta be something more to love

than commitment…

But then I think that…

I might have given up…

on the whole idea of romantic love.

That I…

I might have put it to bed, that…

that day when you weren’t there.

You know, I think I might have done that.

Why are you telling me all this?

I’m sorry.

I don’t know, I’m… I… I should… I…

I shouldn’t have.

Meryl Streep

Devil Wears Prada (穿Prada的恶魔),其实看这套电影已经一段时期,但感觉总是挥之不去,也被我选为2006年十大电影,可能有很多人反对,但没关系,喜欢的原因是表面肤浅但骨子里讯息异常认真的讯息,二,戏里的华丽衣服,戏名应该是Devil Wears Chanel,因戏里的香奈尔多不胜数。

有几个朋友都不约而同问我同一问题,

“如果是你,你会做这份工吗?”

我的答案:“会!” 原因很简单:(一)能捱过那份工一年,你可以进你想进的任何公司,这不是许多打工一族最想的事情吗?(二)老板真是一个“有料”的人!

有一场画龙点睛的戏是这样的,

很多人都可能觉得,老板不是人,老板变态!但有一场画龙点睛的戏是这样的,因为女主角说两条蔚蓝色的腰带都一样时,Miranda所发表的一番伟论,伟论如下:

「 你 從 衣 櫃 中 挑 了 這 件 臃 腫 的 藍 毛 衣 , 想 告 訴 全 世 界 你 是 認 真 的 人 , 所 以 穿 甚 麼 不重 要 , 但 你 不 知 道 這 毛 衣 不 只 是 藍 色 , 也 不 是 藍 綠 色 (turquoise) , 不 是 天 藍 色 (lapis) , 而 是 蔚 藍 色 (cerulean) 。 快 樂 無 憂 的 你 當 然 亦 不 會 知 道 , 2002 Oscar de la Renta 造 了 一 批 cerulean 晚 禮 服 , 然 後 YSL 也 有 cerulean 軍 褸 , 我 們 需 要一 件 褸 , cerulean 因 而 出 現 在 八 個 設 計 師 的 系 列 , 然 後 百 貨 公 司 又 照 辦 煮 碗 , 最後 廉 價 衣 服 製 造 商 模 仿 , 在 中 下 價 市 場 發 揚 光 大 , 然 後 有 一 天 , 你 在 連 鎖 店 減 價 時買 了 一 件 ; 你 身 上 的 藍 色 代 表 數 以 百 萬 計 的 投 資 和 努 力 但 你 卻 堅 持 你 跟 時 裝 工 業 無 關 , 事 實 卻 是 你 穿 的 衣 服 由 這 間 房 的 人 決 定 ! 」

虽然我在职海打滚不是很久,但身边总是充斥着许多埋怨工作,埋怨薪水,埋怨公司,总之苦水一箩箩,但总是又继续做,我时常想,究竟是什么促使他们可以一边做,一边埋怨呢?有或者他们是否应该改变心态?

其实说穿了,都是伏尔泰所说的那句老话,“每个人都想改变世界,但没有人想改变自己。”, 对吗?

曾有一个Uncle朋友向我说,“Be Professional is to adapt yourself to the environment!" and the most important thing is to

"BE POSITIVE"!